Method for lubricating mechanical seal



July 13, 1965 HElM 3,194,342

METHOD FOR LUBRICATING MECHANICAL SEAL Original Filed April 18, 1963 0 22 ,28 PRESSURE IN PSI L FIG. 2

INVENTOR. W53 GEORGE H. HE/M as 53 BY ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,194,342 METHOD FOR LUBRICATING MECHANICAL SEAL George H. Heim, Phillipsburg, N .J., assignor to Ingersoll- $211!! Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of N ew ersey ()riginal application Apr. 18, 1963, Ser. No. 273,956. Divided and this application July 22, 1964, Ser. No. 389,235

3 Claims. (Cl. 184--1) This application is a divisional application of United States patent application No. 273,956, filed April 18, 1963, by George H. Heim and entitled Mechanical Seal.

This invention relates to stufiing boxes for pumps, compressors and the like and more particularly to an improved mechanical seal for such stufling boxes.

Heretofore it has been known in the art of stufiing boxes to employ mechanical seals. In high pressure operation of such mechanical seals, the great variance of pressure across the stationary and rotating seal faces would cause the lubricant to break down and evaporate and thus leave the seal faces void of lubrication. This resulted in high heat, excessive wear and eventual rapid destruction of the seal.

US. Patent No. 2,257,011 issued to H. Hillier on September 23, 1941, for Lubricating and Cooling System for the Stuffing Boxes for Pumps and Like Engines attempts to solve the problem of lubricating stufiing boxes in high pressure service by providing a receptacle for a suitable lubricating medium which communicates with the stuffing box to lubricate the stufling box. This patent does not solve the problem of the great pressure variance across the stufiing box surfaces.

US. Patent No. 2,730,386 issued to I. R. Shields on January 10, 1956, for Lubricated Stuffing Box makes use of a multi-stage packing providing a controlled drop in pressure between successive stages of the packing so that there is a controlled differential in pressure across each stage. This method is complex and it is not applicable in use with stuffing boxes employing mechanical seals.

It is the general object of the present invention to avoid and overcome the foregoing and other difliculties of the objections to prior art practices by providing a lubricating film between the stationary and rotating faces of a mechanical seal and sustaining the film under high pressure and temperature conditions.

Another object of the present invention is to vary the physical-characteristics of the lubricant as required by the operating temperatures and pressures of the mechanical seal.

The aforesaid and other objects of the present invention which will be apparent from the following description are achieved by providing a method for lubricating the seal faces of a mechanical seal, which method includes the steps of supplying lubricating fluid to the seal faces, circulating the lubricating fluid, cooling the lubricating fluid, and adding a filming agent to the lubricating fluid while controlling the percentage of the filming agent in the lubricating fluid.

For a better understanding of the present invention reference should be had to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical diagrammatic View of one embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary diagrammatic sectional view of the stationary and rotating faces of a mechanical seal with a graph superimposed thereon and showing the pressure variance across the seal faces.

Although the principles of the present invention are broadly applicable to mechanical seals in general, the

3,194,342 Patented July 13, 1965 present invention is particularly adapted for use in conjunction with a mechanical seal employed in the stuffing box of a pump used in high pressure service and hence it has been so illustrated and will be so described.

With specific reference to the form of the present invention illustrated in the drawings, and referring particularly to FIGURE 1, a stufiing box is indicated generally by the reference numeral 18. The stufiing box 10 has a casing 11 which is disposed around a wedge sleeve 12 of a shaft 14. The stuffing box It serves as a dividing seal between a wet side 16 .and a dry side 18 of the shaft 14.

On the wet side 16 of the shaft 14 is a standard pump casing (not shown) having an impeller (not shown) for pumping fluids. The pump (not shown) is constructed and arranged for use in high pressure service, such as boiler feed water service. The dry side 18 of the shaft 14 is connected to a standard motor (not shown) to drive the impeller (not shown).

In order to obtain a liquid tight seal between the wet side 16 and the dry side 18 of the shaft 14, a standard mechanical seal 20 is disposed in the casing 11. The mechanical seal 20 is provided with a stationary seal member 22 and a rotating seal assembly 24 disposed adjacently to one another so that a stationary seal face 26 on the stationary seal member 22 and a rotating seal face 28 on the rotating seal assembly 24 mate with one another to provide a liquid tight connection.

The stationary seal face 26 and the rotating seal face 28 are always in constant contact and also are in relative motion with respect to one another. In order to prevent friction failure of the seal faces 26 and 28, the seal faces 26 and 28 are lubricated by lubricating means, such as a diverted portion of the fluid being pumped by the impeller (not shown) using the operating pressure of the pump discharge fluid to force some of the liquid being pumped, back into the stuffing box 10 and between the seal faces 26 and 28 as shown by the arrows in FIG. 1 to lubricate the seal faces 26 and 28.

The seal faces 26 and 28 represent the dividing line between the wet and dry sides 16 and 18 of the stuffing box 10. The seal faces 26 and 28 also represent the dividing line between the high pressure side 30 of the stuffing box which is subjected to the operating pressure of the pump, and the low pressure side 32 of the stufiing box 10, which is at atmospheric pressure, (FIGS 1 and 2).

It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that there is a great pressure drop across the seal faces 26 and 28. The pressure drop across the seal faces, for the purposes of illustration only, is assumed to vary linearly as shown in FIGURE 2. In high pressure service the pressure drop across the seal faces 26 and 28 will be large in the neighborhood of about 1500 psi. In addition, the temperature of the area between the seal faces 26 and 28 is very high such as for example about 300 F. This high temperature is caused by the high pressure, the constant relative motion between the seal faces 26 and 28, and the heat of friction. This combination of high temperature and great pressure drop will cause most lubricating fluids, such as Water and oil, to break down and evaporate. This, of course, will leave the area between the seal faces 26 and 28, void of lubrication and thus cause the seal faces 26 and 28 to break down and fail.

In order to cool the lubricant between the seal faces 26 and 28, circulating means, such as a pumping ring 34, and circulating piping 36, operatively associated with a standard cooler 38 are provided. The pumping ring 34 circulates the diverted fluid (which lubricates the seal faces 26 and 28) through impeller holes 40 (FIG. 1) into the circulating piping 36. The circulating piping 36 carries the lubricant through the cooler 38 and back to the stuffing box it In this manner the lubricating fluid between the seal faces 26 and 23 is cooled.

In the higher pressure services where the seal faces 26 and 28 are subjected to still higher pressures, the operating temperature between the seal faces 26 and 28 is maintained quite high, with resultant increased pressure gradient across the seal faces 26 and 28 in high pressure service. With these conditions the cooler 38 cannot maintain the circulated lubricating fluid at a temperature sufliciently low to prevent the lubricating fluid between seal faces 26 and 28 from breaking down and evaporating. To prevent the lubricating fluid, in high pressure service, from breaking down and evaporating, an auxiliary treating assembly 42 is utilized (FIGURE 1).

AUXILIARY TREATING ASSEMBLY The auxiliary treating assembly 42 has a supply reservoir 44 which is supplied with a filming or treating agent 46, such as soap, detergent, etc., which has the ability to mix with the lubricating fluid to raise the evaporating temperature of the lubricating fluid and thus enable the lubricating fluid to withstand the high temperatures and great pressure drop prevailing at the seal faces 26 and 28. The treating agent 46 is delivered to be mixed with the lubricating fluid by auxiliary treating assembly piping 43, connected to the supply reservoir 44 at point 54), which connects the supply reservoir 44 to the circulating piping 36 at a point 52 on the cooler discharge portion 54 of the circulating piping 36.

In order to automatically control the percentage of treating agent mixed with the lubricating fluid, a control means such as a proportioning pump 56 is disposed on the auxiliary treating assembly piping 48. The proportioning pump 56 can be set to operate at a fixed speed under constant lubricant loss conditions to assure that any treating agent 4-6, that is lost through the inherent fluid losses present in the apparatus or through the overflow (not shown) will be automatically replaced to insure that the lubricating fluid between the seal faces 26 and 28 will always be maintained in the liquid state. In addition, in order to prevent the high pressure maintained in the circulating piping 36 from backing up lubricating fluid into the auxiliary treating assembly piping 48, which is under lower pressure, a check valve 58 is disposed in the auxiliary treating assembly piping 48 just before the auxiliary treating assembly piping 48 is connected to the circulating piping 36 at point 52 (FIGURE 1). Thus the lubricating fluid will be maintained in a liquid state and thus will always provide lubrication between the seal faces 26 and 23. In addition, the lubricating fluid will be conditioned to maintain its lubricating characteristics in the high temperature-great pressure drop conditions existing between the seal faces 26 and 28.

OPERATION Even though it is believed the operation of the apparatus will be apparent from the foregoing description, a brief review of such operation will now be made for purposes of summary and simplification. The operating pressure of the pump (not shown) will divert some of the fluid being pumped between the seal faces 25 and 28, to lubricate the seal faces 26 and 28. The pumping ring 3% will act to circulate the diverted lubricating fluid through the impeller holes 4d and circulating piping 36 to the cooler 38 to cool the lubricating fluid. In addition, the auxiliary treating assembly 42 injects the treating agent 46 into the lubricating fluid to maintain the lubricating fluid in a liquid state.

It Will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the objects of the present invention have been achieved by providing a lubricant to the seal faces of a mechanical seal, such as to maintain its liquid state in high pressure service and thus provide lubrication to the seal faces to prevent the destruction of the seal faces from the prevailing high temperatures and pressures.

While in accordance with the patent statutes a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described in detail, it is to be particularly understood that the invention is not limited thereto or thereby.

I claim:

1. A method for lubricating the seal faces of a mechanical seal comprising the steps of (a) supplying lubricating fluid to said seal faces,

(b) circulating said lubricating fluid about said seal,

(0) cooling the circulating lubricating fluid,

((1) adding a filming agent to said lubricating fluid, and

(e) controlling the percentage of said filming agent in said lubricating fluid.

2. A method for lubricating the seal faces of a mechanical seal comprising the steps of:

(a) supplying lubricating fluid to said seal faces,

(b) cooling said lubricating fluid,

(c) adding a filming agent to said lubricating fluid, and

(d) controlling the percentage of said filming agent in said lubricating fluid.

3. A method for lubricating the seal faces of a mechanical seal comprising the steps of:

(a) supplying lubricating fluid to said seal faces,

(b) circulating said lubricating fluid,

(c) cooling said lubricating fluid,

(d) adding a filming agent to said lubricating fluid from a filming agent reservoir,

(e) controlling the percentage of said filming agent in .said lubricating fluid, and

(f) preventing the lubricating fluid from back-flowing to aid filming agent reservoir.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,470,419 5/49 Voytech 277-27 X 2,628,852 2/53 Voytech 277l5 2,680,433 6/54 Padova et .al. 184-6 FOREIGN PATENTS 861,557 2/61 Great Britain.

LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Primary Examiner. 

2. A METHOD FOR LUBRICATING THE SEAL FACES OF A MECHANICAL SEAL COMPRISING THE STEPS OF: (A) SUPPLYING LUBRICATING FLUID TO SAID SEAL FACES, (B) COOLING SAID LUBRICATING FLUID, (C) ADDING A FILMING AGENT TO SAID LUBRICATING FLUID, AND (D) CONTROLLING THE PERCENTAGE OF SAID FILMING AGENT IN SAID LUBRICATING FLUID. 